tips for getting umbrella fan?

[Lyramisu]

I need to get 5 umbrella fans for making the alpine mother. I used to have several of these earlier in the game, gathered over a long time, but I either planted them or they eventually decayed, and then I cut way back on the number of umbrella fungus I had in my gardens because my frogs were filling up their inventory with a bunch of non-stackable umbrellas. Multiple umbrellas I have left on the ground to decay have disappeared without leaving a fan (like I was standing there watching, the umbrella disappeared, and there was no fan left in its place), one I was using to glide broke mid-air and there was no corresponding fan in my inventory or apparently on the ground below me. I just shoveled up three umbrellas from a fungus out in the wild and used the time needle to see if it would make them decay faster and it does not, and one of the three umbrellas rolled down a small hill and completely vanished! I've been working on this for multiple in-game days. I just want to make an alpine mother. I feel like I have to be missing something about how to produce these.

[Lyramisu]

I got enough fans to do this but IMO it was way too fiddly and time-consuming. All the other plants just produce stackable seeds.

[Inkjet]

Hello!
I'm sorry to hear that this has been frustrating for you - Umbrella fungus plants do produce either usable umbrellas or fans (seeds), and the umbrellas don't turn into fans when they decay.

You should be able to find Umbrella mushroom plants just about anywhere in the world, though I can see it being frustrating if you've pruned many of these plants during your journey.

Really sorry for the frustration! I'll make a note to see if we can make the umbrellas decay into fans.

[Lyramisu]

I don’t think I have ever seen an umbrella fungus just produce a fan. Every one I’ve ever seen has either had an umbrella on it (in my garden they are harvestable, and at the tops of towers out in the world they turn harvestable if I pour water on them, like a rainbloom cactus does), or if there is no umbrella on it, it is waiting to be harvestable. When umbrellas decay to 0% there’s a breaking noise and usually then there is a fan there, which can be picked up. Umbrella fungus growing by the little pools of dirty water in the world often have a glowing spot that spits out 3 or so umbrellas, not fans, if you dig it up, but if you already have an umbrella you can’t pick them up.

This isn’t about having harvested a lot in the world already. It’s that these fungus produce umbrellas which you can only have one of at a time (unless your frog has picked it up and you transfer it to your inventory). They’re not stackable and don’t decay in your inventory or storage if you transfer them over from your frog. Unless you’re lucky and your frog doesn’t pick up the umbrellas and instead picks up the fans, you just wind up with all these umbrellas and no fans. You have to throw them on the ground and hope they don’t blow away or disappear while you’re waiting until they hit 0%.

I’m so confused by your statement that they don’t turn into fans. I have seen them do this. They just don’t do this while in your inventory as an umbrella your frog picked up.